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New era of US Sports-Car racing has seen a little bit of everything

July 10, 2014

Ricky Taylor and Jordan Taylor have put Wayne Taylor Racing on top of the Prototype standings in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

After the first 36 hours of racing—the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona and the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring -- a pair of botched calls defined the brand-new Tudor United SportsCar Championship, the new-for-2014 series that resulted from the combination of Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series.

Formed under the IMSA banner, the Tudor Championship resulted from the merger of NASCAR-backed Grand-Am and Don Panoz's ALMS. The merger was announced in 2012; 2013 was used to complete the paperwork, shuffle staff and try to come up with both a workable schedule and an equitable combination of classes. Nevertheless, many details were still written in pencil right up to the green flag at January's Rolex 24.

And, truth be told, beyond that. Late adjustments to the rules endeared the new series to no one. The last-lap call at Daytona that gave the win to the wrong GT team, then that decision's reversal after almost everyone -- including the owner and lead driver of the eventual winning team -- had gone home, left a bad taste. Then an even worse call at Sebring penalized the wrong Porsche team for the rules infraction of an entirely different Porsche team in another class. It was inexplicable, especially since the aggrieved team was never made whole, and the guilty team was never penalized, though arguably opportunities existed to fix the snafu.

As the Tudor Championship moved to Long Beach -- or at least part of it did, as the four-class lineup was too large to put everyone on-track at the same time on a short-ish street course -- the series desperately needed an uncontroversial event, and it got it. Even better: Every other race leading up to the midseason point—including the most recent one, the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen on June 29 at Watkins Glen -- came off as a professional production, even as IMSA has tweaked rules quietly, mostly in the “balance of performance” arena, where fast cars are penalized and slow cars sped up through weight, aero changes, engine-intake sizes and any other tools IMSA has in its kit.

The inevitable accusations that the series has been “NASCAR-ized” is, to some extent, true. It is also not necessarily a bad thing. The GT-Daytona class, mostly Grand-Am GT teams, seems solid and well populated. The GT-Le Mans class, with mostly factory-backed ALMS GT teams like Corvette Racing and SRT Motorsports, appears reasonably healthy, and it's the only class that is not required to use otherwise-mandated Continental tires -- Michelin is the rubber of choice.

The spec Prototype Challenge class, a direct transfer from ALMS using ORECA chassis and Chevrolet engines, remains an interesting field-filler, though in the longer races some less experienced drivers who should probably be in the lower-tier Continental Tire Challenge series instead of a prototype car tend to get in the way.

The top Prototype class is where IMSA really has its work cut out for itself. Grand-Am's Daytona Prototypes and the ALMS' LMP2 cars are vastly different machines. At the Glen, their lap times might be similar, but speeds in and out of corners and on long straights can vary dramatically.

The compromise has been matching the DP cars against the P2 cars; it isn't ideal, and it will be fixed when the series eventually migrates toward one prototype model. But for now, in the interest of amortizing costs with existing equipment, it needed to be done. And honestly, it has made for some pretty compelling racing. So where do we stand, class by class?

Here's a midseason, post-Watkins Glen rundown:

PROTOTYPE

The Chevrolet Corvette DPs continue to rule, with Wayne Taylor Racing's family affair (Wayne is the team owner, sons Jordan and Ricky the drivers) leading the points. They're followed by João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, driving a Corvette DP for Action Express, which won at Daytona. Third is the Spirit of Daytona team of Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante, who won at Watkins in still another Corvette DP. Alone in fourth is Gustavo Yacamán, driver of the Oak Morgan-Nissan P2 entry.

In fifth is the perennial favorite, the Ganassi Racing DP of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, suffering from teething problems with the new Ford EcoBoost engine, in addition to bad luck. A disappointing seventh is the Extreme Speed Honda-powered P2 team of Ryan Dalziel and Scott Sharp, whom many thought would be fighting for the championship.

Missing in action from the Prototype ranks is the Gainsco team, which never came back after the devastating crash at Daytona that sent driver Memo Gidley to the hospital, followed by a stay in rehab as he makes his recovery.

Scott Tucker's Level 5 team left the Prototype ranks at the end of 2013, won the GT class at Daytona and hasn't been back. Starworks fielded prototypes at Daytona and Sebring only. The Muscle Milk and Dyson Racing teams, longtime Prototype participants, are MIA. Meanwhile, Mazda is hanging in there with its SpeedSource diesel-powered P2 team, but progress, though steady, has been slow.

Jon Bennett and Colin Braun lead the points in the Prototype Challenge class. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

PROTOTYPE CHALLENGE

Eleven PC teams have scored points, with Colin Braun and Jon Bennett of the CORE team solidly atop the points. The class did not race at Long Beach or Belle Isle in Detroit. It's a good class for up-and-comers like Sean Rayhall and David Ostella, as well as a paycheck for veterans like Bruno Junqueira and Alex Tagliani.

Corvette Racing's Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen are leading the chase in the GT-Le Mans class. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

GT LE MANS

Corvette Racing drivers Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia did not have the best Daytona or Sebring, but they've been solid since, winning at Long Beach, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Watkins Glen (GTLM didn't compete at Belle Isle or Kansas.) A close second is the team of Bill Auberlen and Andy Priaulx in Bobby Rahal's BMW Team RLL.

That said, you can expect the factory-backed Porsche team of Patrick Long and Michael Christensen, sixth in points, to be in contention before the year is over. The Dodge Viper SRT team is tough on long tracks, and there are plenty of those left. It has something to prove after not being able to finance its trip to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler are the semi-surprising points leaders for the AIM Autosport Ferrari team, leading the Magnus Porsche team of Andy Lally and John Potter, and the Alex Job Porsche team of Leh Keen and Cooper MacNeil (the team that was hurt by the botched call at Sebring).

A whopping 29 teams have earned points in GTD. While a few were Daytona and/or Sebring only, most have made it to Mazda Raceway, Belle Isle and Watkins Glen, too.

After a shaky start, the Tudor Championship has found some momentum; if the series maintains it, this inaugural year will be remembered for its competitiveness, not its conflicts